Nuclear Power Trio United States

"I remember when these guys, credited as "Donny, Vlad, and Kimmy" released an EP in 2020. I never listened to it, despite people having seemed to rave about it. I couldn't (and really still can't) get over the band's schtick. I honestly don't really appreciate this type of humor, which I just find juvenile and, frankly, stupid (in a bad way). It comes across as a complete gimmick and this reason I thought the music would come second to the gimmick and be generic and boring.

Here we are three years later, and literally people I know irl are recommending this, the trio's first full length, to me. It has pretty much universal acclaim and I guess I just can't ignore it anymore.

Well fuck me, I'm impressed. This is actually really good. Like REALLY good. It's like Liquid Tension Experiment decided to incorporate Afro-Cuban and Latin American-influenced grooves into their music and tone up the jazz fusion, adding in heavy funk elements, too. And it works remarkably well. The biggest strength in the band lies in their musicianship - they are all great at what they do. Upon further research, their guitarist, under the alias of Vlad Putin and who wears a creepy Vladimir Putin mask in the music video, is actually the guitarist for Allegaeon, which explains why he's so virtuosic.

Don't get me wrong, I still think the whole Donny, Vlad, and Kimmy thing is an annoying gimmick, and for this reason I probably will not be purchasing this album, as well as for the production issue, which I'll detail below, but the sound is there. It is good.

My only complaint, music-wise, is the production. Whoever engineered this needed to have toned everything down three notches. It has a dynamic range of 5, which is a big shame. I can't rate this above B-tier, which for me is below an 8.0 rating, because it's just too loud. Had it been produced better, it's a solid A-tier; probably an 8.5. For now it gets a 7.9 for the poor production on an otherwise awesome effort.

Edit: Upon further listen, the mastering work here really is that bad. Come on, it's not 2008 anymore; you don't need to brickwall your music to be successful. I'm dropping it to a 6.9 (6.5 here) because I can't justify this above a C-tier rating (below 7.0). With a better mastering job, it'd be in the 8s.

Edit again: 6.0 not 6.5. The point of keeping this in C-tier is that I don't want this exceeding three stars. I think the site was better when the badge showed numeric ratings instead of rounded out stars. I will likely never rate anything a 6.5 because it gets listed as 3.5 instead of 3.0"